Page 141 of No Safe Place

‘You killed David, killed Sam, because of this?’ he asked quietly, fighting to keep his voice level.

‘Yes.’ There was snot running down Ruby’s face, but she didn’t wipe it away. The other hand joined the first on the handle of the knife. ‘She was my sister.’

Callum counted to six in his head.

‘It’s not real, Ruby.’ He held the papers in front of his torso, like a shield. ‘It’s not real.’

‘You’re lying.’ She’d stopped crying. Seemed frozen to the spot. ‘You’re always lying.’

His rage, always just below the surface, overwhelmed him.

He threw the papers across the table and stood up, took a step towards her.

‘I’m lying?’ He laughed, the cruel laugh he had when he was drunk. He felt drunk. He felt high, completely fucked – because this couldn’t be real. ‘I’m fucking lying?’

He took another step towards her, and Ruby backed off.

‘Your sister was an artist,’ he said, in a low voice. ‘She was an actress, yeah? In the end, Paige decided that she wanted to act, go to RADA, but when she was with us?

‘She wrote.’ He laughed again, throwing his hands up and making Ruby flinch. ‘To make herself feel better, she wrote about an even shittier situation than the one she was in. It was afuckingplay.’

Ruby shook her head and the last of his control snapped.He didn’t care what she did – she could stab him too for all he fucking cared.

‘It’s not real,’ Callum said. He punctuated each of his words with a step forward, pushing Ruby back towards the kitchen door. ‘It’s fiction. “D” stands for doctor, and “P” stands for patient.’

‘A play?’ Ruby looked shell-shocked, her eyes darting to the folder on the table.

‘It was part of her RADA audition.Disorder, a play by Paige Jacobs. How did you not know that? Did you not fucking care?’

‘I—’

‘A good man is dead because you didn’t know your sister,’ Callum yelled. He was in Ruby’s face, the knife forgotten.

Everything happened at once. The hammering on the front door, the shout of “Police” from outside and the pressure, below his ribs.

Callum looked down. It was like she had barely touched him, maybe a firm push backwards, but the knife was buried in his stomach, up to the handle.

Chapter 103

Sunday | Evening

Field

‘Callum,’ she called through the door. ‘Callum, are you there? We need to speak to you. We need to know you’re safe.’

She stepped back and waited, listening hard. Riley was holding an enforcer, ready to break the door down. The other cars were still five minutes away at least.

‘What do you want to do, boss?’ Riley asked.

Field rubbed her forehead with the heel of her hand.

It could be an empty house. She could smash the door down and find that Callum and Lily weren’t home, that she was in the wrong place entirely.

But if they were home, if Ruby had found them—

‘Do it.’

The door, the flimsy front door that probably hadn’t been changed for forty years, splintered on the first impact.